Poison is the quiet weapon, and as such, the use of it in a crime story plot makes for some of the best crime writing there is.    If you want to write a poisoning that holds up, the trick is understanding how these cases actually get solved, because that’s

This file examines the 1892 Fall River murders of Andrew and Abby Borden through the physical evidence and the forensic methods of the period. The narrative account of the household, the trial, and the aftermath appears in the companion post, Lizzie Borden: The House That Kept Its Secrets. The purpose

Lizzie Borden: Maiden of the Hatchet One hundred and thirty-four years ago, on the morning of August 4, 1892, the most talked-about murders in American history happened inside one of the plainest houses on the street.    Ninety-two Second Street in Fall River, Massachusetts was a narrow, hardworking home, and

It’s High Time Your Hero and Villain See A Therapist If you are struggling through your current WIP, it may be time for a little therapy session with your main characters.  One of my chief goals as a storyteller is to create heroes, villains, and central characters who stay with

Somewhere on a crime show on television tonight, a medical examiner will dutifully glance at a body and announce that death occurred at precisely 10:42 p.m. It is a great dramatic dialogue line. It is also pure fiction, because it teaches readers and writers to expect a precision the science

In the summer of 1985, Southern California learned to fear its own windows. People who hadalways slept with the screens open against the heat began locking everything, checking latchestwice, and lying awake listening. The reason had a name the newspapers gave him beforeanyone knew his real one: the Night Stalker.

There is a line that shows up in crime fiction so often it has become a kind of comfort food:the medical examiner crouches over a body, glances at a thermometer, and announces,“Time of death, nine forty-seven p.m.” It is satisfying, it is tidy, it serves the story world. But it’s